1. Technical Field
Aspects of the present invention relate to a device having a function of outputting sound (or a moving image) when a certain event occurs.
2. Related Art
Devices having a function of outputting sound when a certain event occurs are widely used. For example, a telephone has a function of outputting sound when receiving a call, and an alarm clock has a function generating an alarm when a predetermined alarm time is reached. Some of such devices are configured to allow a user to select a sound type to be outputted.
In general, such devices are configured to have a memory in which sound data to be outputted as sound is stored, or are configured to have an interface to which an external memory in which sound data is stored can be connected. In the device, when a certain event occurs, sound data stored in the memory or the external memory is reproduced and a reproduced signal is inputted to an internal speaker to output sound corresponding to the sound data. An example of such a device is disclosed in Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. 2001-333143A.
A system having a telephone and a sound generation device has bee proposed. In this system, the sound generation system is connected to the telephone so that the number of sound types to be used as call sound indicating reception of a call can be increased. More specifically, in this system, the telephone sends a signal representing reception of a call to the sound generation device when receiving a call, and then the sound generation device outputs sound via an internal speaker provided in the sound generation device. That is, the sound generation device reproduces sound data stored in an internal memory which is provided in the sound generation device to output sound corresponding to the sound data via the internal speaker of the sound generation device. An example of such a device is disclosed in Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. 2000-316038A.